Put 8 ounces of water in a styro cup then 4 ounces this way you are testing at different weights some scales go off at various weights

8 ounces is 1 cup

Chef EdBOver 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...

Chef EdBOver 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...

In Ruhlman's book entitled RATIO, he recommends getting three ladles, 2 oz, 4 oz and 8 oz for measuring things. And somewhere either in his book or the BAKER'S COMPANION by KA that federal law allows a 1 cup measure to deviate by approx 15% or so. THAT deviation can be significant.

Do yourself a favor and get some standard weights.

Best and I'm a foodie. I know very little but the little that I know I want to know very well.

The coin trick will work, but it helps if you choose your measurements either in grams or in ounces.

I'm going to use U.S. coins for the measurement standards, (I'll leave it to people outside the U.S. to look up the figures for coin weights for their individual currencies). All weight figures are from the U.S. Mint and the conversion ratio is one ounce equals 28.3495 grams (per Google).

If you are testing the weight in grams, use either pennies or nickels. According to the U.S. Mint, pennies are 2.500 grams each, while nickels are 5.000 grams each. That makes 100 grams equal to either 40 pennies or 20 nickels.

If you want to test in ounces, you can use dimes, quarters or half dollar coins. Dimes have a gram weight of 2.268 grams, quarters weigh 5.670 grams each, and half dollars weigh 11.340 grams each.

In ounces, that works out to dimes weighing 0.080 ounces each, quarters weighing 0.200 ounces each, and half dollars weighing 0.400 ounces each. To get pretty near to exactly 1 ounce, put down $1.25 in dimes, quarters or half dollars.

Mind you, that assumes that the coins are not too old, worn or dirty. That can throw the measurements off a smidgen. Also, assume that you have to take coins out of any rolled wrappers.